Many water-borne vessels employ engines as their primary source of power for propelling these vessels on water. In some cases, water bodies may be demarcated based on various emission regulation standards in that—one water body may have a different emission regulation standard from another water body. Therefore, it may be required for a vessel to comply its exhaust emissions with, for example, IMO (International Maritime Organization)-II standard when travelling in a first water body. However, when the vessel moves into another water body different from the first water body, the exhaust emissions from the vessel may be required to comply with a standard different from that of IMO-II, for example, an IMO-III standard. In such cases, vessels that are incapable of complying with a particular emission regulation standard would not be permitted to travel on the water body that is designated with the particular emission regulation standard.
Also, when it is not required to meet a stringent emission regulation standard, such vessels may lack the ability to modulate operation of its engine systems to optimize fuel and reductant usage and therefore, meet a less stringent emission regulation standard that is currently applicable to the engine system. This may increase costs associated with operation of the engine system, for instance, from an increased amount of reductant being used in an after-treatment system of the engine system.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,103,248 discloses a system that is configured to optimize fuel and reductant consumption. Particularly, the '248 patent discloses that an operation mode of an engine and after-treatment system is determined based on a reductant-to-fuel cost ratio. The operation mode would optimize fuel consumption and reductant consumption in an engine system while satisfying a target emissions level. Although such previously known systems could bring about a reduction in the exhaust emissions from engines and after-treatment systems, such systems would be configured to do so for reasons other than complying with changing emission regulation standards—for instance, with the primary intent to optimize the consumption of consumables such as fuel and reductant. Moreover, when fuel and reductant consumption is optimized by taking the reductant-to-fuel cost ratio into consideration, such an implementation may pose challenges in realizing the primary function of regulating quality of exhaust emissions for compliance with a required emission regulation standard.
Hence, there is a need for a system that facilitates compliance of exhaust emissions from engines with changing emission regulation standards that would be typically encountered when marine vessels course through differently designated water bodies.